Magical Engineering

“Two questions: What exactly do you mean by loot? And are you okay? Your voice doesn’t sound so great.” Were there random treasures to find in a dungeon? Considering the entire rewriting of what I thought were the standard rules of reality that I had already experienced since my arrival in this new universe, I wasn’t entirely sure why I was stuck on this concept alone. Still, for some reason, the idea of loot was just pushing my brain past the easy acceptance point.

“He’ll be okay. He’s just gotta get his body more used to channeling mana through his throat like that,” Cecile explained. So that was what the chanting before the weather effects was. That had apparently been my first exposure to someone casting real spells here. I added another note to my continuously growing list to read up on how exactly spells worked alongside mana channeling.

“Okay, and the loot, what are we looking for? Wait, actually, that shard I grabbed earlier. What was it?” I asked as I fished around in my pocket and produced the small crystalline object. Now that I had time to look at it without the anxiety of looming monsters, I noticed that it glowed a faint pink, similar to the worms that had nearly engulfed me.

“Good find, Dave! That’s a mana shard. Every monster should have at least one of them. We’re also gonna want to find out where the dungeon core rolled off to after I killed the snail. Can’t leave it for something else to get hold of, or the dungeon will start to grow again. As for other loot, it’s too new for that, bigger, older dungeons, well, those tend to have attracted other mana beasts, so there can be extra chambers full of strange things. It's those places that would hide magical plants or items with strange abilities from the dungeon-infused mana,” Cecile explained. I felt like he was leaving out another potential source of loot in the more dangerous dungeons—the possessions of those who didn’t survive their expedition.

“I saw where that rolled to. I’ll grab it. You two can dig through the mess that used to be the slugs.” The smell alone of the dead creatures was already getting to me, and I really didn’t want to start vomiting during my search. This experience had already been bad enough.

“We should check the back end of the cavern, just to be sure there’s nothing else, but likely, yes, we only need the core and the shards,” Elicec said, his voice still scratchy.

I spotted the dungeon core, now a dull black, in a pile of rubble near one of the walls and bent carefully to pick it up. As I touched it, I realized my newest mistake in what felt like a series of nonstop blunders. I felt a small surge of energy tingle its way through my palm and up my arm. Apparently, it wasn’t dead, and the core still wanted my soul.

“Dave, have you changed your mind and considered letting me take your body? That would be an incredible gift.” The voice’s smooth, almost melodic words blanketed me yet again. This time, though, I was more prepared for how it would feel.

“I told you last time, stay out of my head.” I gritted my teeth, whispering these words, hoping the brothers didn’t overhear. I forced my hand to drop the core into my pocket, and the moment the contact was released, the voice vanished again.

So, the intelligence in the core persisted past the death of the host. Did that mean the rock snail had no control of its own body at all? That explained why Mel was worried about me going in here. What would happen if the dungeon core used my body to leave? Did it even want to?

“That’s all five shards over here. Did you find the core?” Cecile questioned, his voice full of excitement. It brought my mind back to the situation at hand. I didn’t have time to plot the nature of dungeon cores yet. That was better left for when we returned to the archives.

“Yeah, safely tucked away in my pocket. Are these things sapient?” I asked, unsure what the ramifications of the answer would be.

“What’s sapient?” Cecile asked as a look of confusion had covered his face.

“It essentially means intelligent. Do you ever read, brother? Yes, they can be. I assume it tried to speak to you?” Elicec asked while giving his brother an annoyed expression.

“Yeah, twice. It really wants my body. What would it do if it got it?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me. This really could have waited, but having a talking, body-stealing, otherworldly orb in my pocket made it hard to ignore the risks for the moment.

“I know it’s happened before, but I don’t really know the outcome, probably nothing good for you, though. I know some people have based their classes and skill sets around dungeon cores, so it is possible to make the thing’s intelligence useful. You can keep that one if you want to explore its uses. Since it doesn’t have a body, there isn’t a lot it can do to you, just don’t eat it or anything stupid like that,” Elicec explained.

“Yeah, I doubt it’s worth much considering how weak it is, anyway. I can already feel the dungeon starting to lose its energy,” Cecile said. A few seconds following his claim, I also felt the weird feeling that had been with me since we entered lessen.

“Come on, do a quick perimeter check of the cavern before all the energy fades. Grab anything that seems useful. We can check it later,” Elicec ordered. I picked the opposite side the brothers went to and started walking along the wall towards the far end. With the dungeon’s influence fading, I felt a little of the earlier fear go with it.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting NovelFire for this novel and more.

In its place, some of the anxiety turned into an excitement of sorts. We had fought monsters and survived. That was something to be proud of. The usual aches and pains of my body didn’t seem to bother me as much as I searched the cavern for anything of potential use. Get full chapters from N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

In my haste, I almost missed it. Growing from the crack between two rocks was a small black flower. I reached down, pushing the pebbles away to reveal more of the stem. I grabbed it firmly as far down as I could and carefully plucked it. I had no idea if this was just a natural cave plant or something special, but that was knowledge I could find out later. I stood back up, keeping the flower safely in my hand, and continued my path, finding nothing else until I bumped into the brothers.

“Hey guys, found a black flower, what did you guys find?” I lifted the flower into their field of vision, giving them a glimpse of my potential loot.

“Nothing, but that looks like it might be magical. We should plant it when we get back. I can test some of my magic on it,” Cecile said. I liked the idea. I didn’t have any idea what to do with it, and they had given me the core to keep. It was only fair that they got something as well. I handed the flower to Cecile, who smiled brightly as he grabbed it from me.

“All yours, buddy. Are we good to get back now?” I asked. I was exhausted. I wanted a nice long shower, some food, and then to get back to a safe world of research. The memory of being stabbed flashed unbidden in my head. Okay, so it wasn’t always safe, but that was exactly why I needed to get back to it. I had to work on my core so that I could avoid future incidents while trying to accomplish other tasks.

“Yep. Honestly, that went quicker than I thought it would. I know we’ve got experience to spend, so I bet you can’t wait either, Dave. Let’s meet up tomorrow at the Adventure Hall around lunch. We can give our full report and see what we wanna do with the shards,” Cecile said, clapping me on the back gently. The man’s enthusiasm was almost contagious, and I couldn’t fault him for it. I was glad he had invited me to this, not just because of what could have happened without me, or even the potential level increases. This was an experience I had needed. It gave me a better picture of what was coming and reinforced how far I had to go.

After much small talk and assurances of seeing each other tomorrow after lunch, I was finally back in my room and no longer covered in the grime of the day. I sat down at my desk and pulled up the System’s interface. I had points to apply. I quickly dismissed the list of notifications and started by looking at quests. It seemed the dungeon’s completion had counted as a series of new quests, and more interestingly, it had been given a name.